


under a watchful sky

by Serie11



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Kairi Lives, Kissing, Lucky Charms, Magic, Minor Naminé/Xion (Kingdom Hearts), Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Promises, Relationship Advice, Sisters, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 09:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20189743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: After Naminé asks Kairi how to to make a good luck charm, the sisters bond over their respective partners.





	under a watchful sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).

Kairi narrows her eyes slightly as she threads the string through the tiny hole. She hasn’t gotten around to doing any crafts since they all came back from saving the worlds (again), but getting back into it is a good idea. Making things has always kept her hands busy and had left her mind free to wander.

“What next?” Naminé asks her, frowning at her own thread.

“The shells are delicate, so we have to be careful,” Kairi says. “Tying the knots too hard can cause stress on the shells, so they’ll break pretty soon. But you can’t be too loose, either. Here, it’s like this.”

She adeptly ties her string around the hole they bored into the shell, and shows it to Naminé. Naminé studies it seriously, a tiny wrinkle between her eyebrows as she concentrates.

“Just try,” Kairi encourages her. “There are more shells if we need them.”

“I don’t want it to break after I give it to her,” Naminé admits. “Sora is still carrying the one that you gave him.”

“I spent a lot of time on that to get it right,” Kairi acknowledges. “But I still made some mistakes along the way. Practise makes perfect!”

“Okay,” Naminé says, dipping her head slightly. “If it does break… I would like to spend more time with you, Kairi.”

“We don’t have to be making things out of Thalassa shells to be spending time together,” Kairi says. “You’re my sister! We’re living together now, and there’s no crazy guys running around trying to end the world, so that means we have heaps of time to hang out.”

Naminé smiles at her, eyes crinkling more than her mouth moves. It’s a slow process, but she’s learning that she can show whatever emotions she wants, whenever she wants. Kairi hopes that it will quicken with time. She wants Naminé to like living here.

“How are you feeling?” she asks instead, because she’s always quietly worried about everyone who is running around in bodies that aren’t quite human. She rarely sees Roxas, but Xion comes around regularly, and Naminé lives here, so is the easiest she can ask. Naminé is also the one that Kairi is the most worried about. After all, the others got _new_ bodies. Naminé… didn’t.

“The same,” Naminé says thoughtfully, gingerly threading the next hole. “I don’t think these bodies are that different from a human’s.”

“You just think that because you never had a body to begin with,” Kairi points out. “And I know that you and Xion talk about it – and that you have a different opinion to her.”

Naminé pauses, looking away from the jumble of shell and string that she’s holding. “It’s true,” she admits. “There is some… roughness… around the edges of this body. The Riku who left this to me… he was not handled carefully.”

Kairi deliberately ties her next knot, trying to hide how that feeds a smouldering fire of anger within her. She’d never met the person that Naminé is talking about, but from what the others have told her, he was a Riku who was copied from her Riku when he was at his most vulnerable, and then mistreated by everyone he came across. “It isn’t _fair_, what happened to him.”

“No,” Naminé says, her shoulders drooping slightly. “I wish… there could have been some way to save him, too.”

“We all did what we could… but it wasn’t enough,” Kairi says hotly.

“It was enough,” Naminé tries to cut in.

“It _wasn’t,_” Kairi tells her, blinking back the sudden wetness to her eyes. “We should have been able to save everyone. But we didn’t.”

Naminé is quiet for a few seconds. “You saved me,” she finally points out. “And Xion, and Roxas, and Isa, and Terra. He made his choice, Kairi. He could have stayed, but he didn’t. He _chose _to save me. Don’t discredit that. You do him a disservice.”

“Right,” Kairi mumbles. “I just… wish that I could have met him.”

“You would have gotten along well,” Naminé tells her. “Or at least, you get along well with Riku, and they’re not that different.”

“Oh, shut up,” Kairi says, feeling her cheeks get hot. “Riku in his moody teen phase is different from how he is now.”

“You think that Riku is out of his moody teen phase?” Naminé asks lightly. Kairi elbows her and Naminé doesn’t even take it badly, so maybe Kairi is teaching her something about teasing, after all.

“He’s grown a lot,” Kairi says. “Sometimes, I’m sad that I wasn’t there to see it.”

“He could never bring himself to come back to the islands,” Naminé tells her. “He was always working with DiZ, or watching over Sora. I think… it’s because he couldn’t stand to see you.”

“How come?”

Naminé is quiet for a bit, and Kairi shows her how to add another shell to her charm. “I think he was afraid of you seeing him,” she finally says, and Kairi bites her lip so she doesn’t yell.

“Well then he was an idiot,” she hisses instead, angrily yanking a knot tight. Too tight. She takes a breath and then starts trying to loosen it.

“He thought that he would disappoint you, if he came home without Sora,” Naminé says. “And I think… he couldn’t stand seeing you, because he would be too happy. If Sora was lost in his dreams, maybe gone forever in his sleep, then he didn’t think he deserved to be happy.”

Kairi stares at her half-finished charm so she doesn’t have to look at Naminé. “I would have welcomed him home,” she tells her. “That year… I almost thought I really had made them both up! Everyone thought Riku was dead, but I knew better. But sometimes it would be hard… especially when everyone just started to think that I was in denial, that I couldn’t accept that Riku was gone.” She sniffles a little bit. “I would have wanted any contact… even if he didn’t talk to me! Even if I just saw him, hugged him… Okay maybe some talking would have been nice, too. So I knew I wasn’t imagining things.”

“That’s the type of person Riku is,” Naminé states.

“I know,” Kairi says, deflating a little. “I try and tell him that I love him, but sometimes I don’t know if he really hears me. He can get just – so caught up, in these problems that he comes up with and then doesn’t talk to anyone about. He just blows it all way out of proportion! He’s gotten a bit better about it since we won the battle, but he still does it. That’s why I have to knock some sense into him every now and again in our spars.”

“Seems like more than every now and again recently,” Naminé points out.

“Heh. I’m getting better,” Kairi says. “Now I just have to convince everyone to not go easy on me. _Then _I’ll start making some real improvements!”

“I can’t wait to see,” Naminé says.

“I’ll make sure to give you a show,” Kairi promises. She does the last knot on the shell, and grabs her scissors to start tidying it all up. “Almost done! Have you thought about what you’re going to say to Xion when you give it to her?”

“Not really,” Naminé says, sounding slightly dismayed. “Am I supposed to… say something?”

“It doesn’t have to be that big,” Kairi instructs. “But it should mean something! Sora and I made a promise when I gave it to him… to always try to find our way back to each other. I think I know what I’m going to tell Riku. But you should think about what you’re going to say to Xion. It’s not every day you give away a lucky charm!”

“You’re right,” Naminé says, nodding her head firmly. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good.”

“So… what are you going to tell Riku?” Naminé asks slyly.

“Is that your attempt to get advice out of me or are you just out for gossip?” Kairi asks her, lifting an eyebrow.

“Depends on your answer?”

Kairi laughs. She puts down her charm and then shows Naminé how she should tie the remaining string off so that the charm won’t fall apart, and then hands her the scissors so she can cut off the excess string.

Naminé holds up her charm triumphantly. She’d carved a tiny ice cream on one side, and Kairi had to admit that it was very cute.

“So if they’re finished, what do we do now?” Naminé asks, tilting her head to the side.

“Give it to them!” Kairi says, hiding her grin with her free hand. “I’m sure they’re going to love it.”

“Oh,” Naminé blinks. “Of course.” She turns to Kairi, and Kairi can’t help but smile at her warmly. “Kairi… thank you for showing me how to make this. It… means a lot to me, to spend time with you.”

“It means a lot to me too,” Kairi says warmly. She stands, and pulls Naminé to her feet too. “And there’s no time like the present to go and show our dates how much we care about them!”

“Right away?” Naminé asks, eyes widening slightly. “I was hoping to think about what I was going to say for a bit longer…”

“You’ll have some time until we find them,” Kairi chirps. She threads her arm through Naminé’s, and leads her towards the door.

“If you say so,” Naminé says, casting a doubtful glance at Kairi out of the corner of her eye. Kairi leans against her lightly.

“I do! Now… where could that brooding boyfriend of mine have gotten off to at this time of day…”

* * *

Kairi steps down from the sand shelf into the almost empty cove at the back of the play island. Riku likes to practise out here, alone, because it’s far easier to dock on the near side and then walk over then it is to paddle. This side of the island is prone to the heavy tides and rough water that marks the open sea. While it’s still quite shallow water here, it definitely is riskier to swim on this side of the island.

Riku is sitting on the far end of the beach, looking out into the open ocean. Or maybe not – as she gets closer, she can see the tiny dark flame he’s cradling in one hand. His eyes are closed, but he must know that she’s here. That’s another reason he prefers to be on this side of the island. He can tell who is coming, and stop training if it’s someone who won’t know what to think of magic spells or giant keys.

“Hey there,” Kairi says, sitting down next to him and leaning up to peck his cheek. Riku closes his fist and snuffs out the flame that he’d been holding there. “Aw, it was pretty,” Kairi complains, leaning against him.

“It was dangerous,” Riku murmurs. “I’m still getting used to controlling it. Outside of battle, it’s a lot less inclined to listen to me.”

“No distractions?” Kairi queries.

Riku shakes his head. “Nothing to burn, besides me.” He opens his palm again, and Kairi can see the shininess of burnt skin.

“Riku!” she scolds. She takes a deep breath and channels her magic to her palms, laying her hands on him. It takes a minute, but by the time she’s done he’s pretty much completely healed.

“Thanks,” he says.

“You should be more careful,” Kairi scolds him, tugging her knees up under her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs.

“My beautiful girlfriend is always around to heal me if I need it,” Riku says lightly. When she continues to glare at him, he sighs. “And I need to learn to control it. If I hurt someone by accident… I could never forgive myself. Not again.”

“We all know that you don’t want to hurt us,” Kairi reassures him. “But you should still be careful.”

“I will,” Riku promises. “… Sorry.”

Kairi splays out her legs again, knocking her feet against his shins. When did he get so _tall? _“Don’t worry about it. Just doing my honour bound duty to remind you not to be stupid about these things.”

Riku huffs out a laugh. “Well, consider me reminded.”

“Good,” Kairi says. She looks out over the sea – when they were kids, they never just… sat around like this, taking in the scenery. It was all games, and action, and even when they were sitting around they were always focused on each other. Now, she’s very aware of Riku’s presence beside her, but it’s a warm acknowledgement that can stand on its own. She can take in the beauty of the islands, and be reassured by his strength.

“Did you want to train?” Riku asks.

“Maybe a bit later,” Kairi tells him. “I actually wanted to give something to you.”

“Yeah?” Riku asks, lifting one eyebrow. “What?”

She turns to him, taking in the new slope of his jaw, the line of his neck. Half of the time it’s still a shock to see his short hair. She can’t remember a time when he had shorter hair than her. She puts her hand into her pocket and closes it around the charm, running her thumb over the grooves in it slowly.

When she shows it to him, something flashes across his face that she can’t identify. “I made one for you,” she says. “I’ve been collecting the shells for a while, but you know how rare they are. And making the holes often breaks them. I was going to give one to you and Sora at the same time, but…” She trails off.

“But then everything happened,” Riku nods. “Kairi… I…”

She leans up and presses a kiss against the corner of his mouth, lingering sweetly as she presses their hands together for him to take it. Riku leans down for her and matches their mouths up more smoothly, one of his hands coming up to press against her back and pull her in closer.

“I just want you to know, that I’m always going to be here for you,” she tells him when they break apart. “You can always count on me, always talk to me. But in return, you have to be there for me too, got it?”

“Of course,” Riku says immediately, sounding vaguely affronted. “I’ll always be here if you need me.”

“It goes both ways,” Kairi says, staring at him pointedly.

“It goes both ways,” Riku agrees after a second. “Though you know… having you beside me is already more than I could ask for.”

“Well tough, because I _know _when you’re holding back, and I’m going to kick your ass if you do it. So, we lean on each other. We’re stronger together. Promise?”

Riku smiles at her, and Kairi’s heart melts as the corners of his eyes crease. “Promise.” He takes the charm, and inspects it carefully. Kairi digs her free hand into the sand, feeling the grit against her skin. Being here, back at the islands with her friends by her side – well, she couldn’t ask for anything more, really.

“Thank you,” Riku says quietly, and Kairi turns to give him her best grin.

“You’re welcome!”

Okay – maybe she _could _ask for something else. The smile that Riku gives her, right then? She wants to see it, as often as she can. Maybe that might require some effort on her end… but she’s never been one to shy away from hard work. And if that’s her reward, then she’s very, very motivated.

Kairi sits under the sun next to Riku, listens to the waves washing up against the shore and the gulls calling in the distance, and is happy.


End file.
